Whats Your Marketing Attitude?

Entrepreneurs pay a lot of attention to the mechanics of marketing. They take workshops, read books, and hire consultants to find out how to do the best job they possibly can. With my own clients, I often discover that their knowledge of marketing techniques is quite good already. What they might lack is the right kind of marketing attitude.

Do any of the attitudes described below sound familiar? If so, you may be sabotaging your own marketing efforts. Read on for some possible solutions.

1. "I shouldn't have to market." If you are good enough at what you do, you tell yourself, clients should just come to you. Marketing is for products, not professionals. You have years of training and experience in your specialty, why should you have to spend your precious time on marketing?

This perception is extremely common among consultants and professionals, although many won't admit it. The fact is that successful marketing is a necessary part of business ownership. If you could get all the paying work you wanted without having to market, why wouldn't everyone be self-employed?

If you perceive marketing as a dirty business, try thinking of it as the diapers you need to change in order to have the joys of being a parent. But instead of focusing on what you dislike, tie your marketing chores to your vision of a successful business.

Visualize checks arriving in the mail when it's time to make a cold call, or picture a signed contract when preparing for a presentation. Post visual reminders (e.g. photos or clippings) at your desk of the reasons you became self-employed in the first place. Parents don't remember all the diapers when they're looking at the baby photos.

2. "I don't have time for marketing." There are only two situations where this can really be true: you're too busy doing the client work you already have, or you have other important responsibilities (e.g. an outside job or young children) taking up your time.

It's easy to believe that doing client work already contracted for is more important than marketing, especially when deadlines are tight. But if you always follow this policy, you will be locked into a feast or famine cycle, with no new clients waiting for you when the work is finished.

Whether your responsibilities preventing you from marketing are within the business or outside it, you need to allocate a minimum amount of time each week, no matter what. Even two hours per week can make a significant difference, if you consistently use that time for marketing.

Imagine that you have overslept, and are late for an appointment. You might skip breakfast, but would you leave the house without brushing your teeth? Of course not. If you are going to be successful in business, that's how automatic marketing needs to become for you.

3. "My marketing isn't working." It's true that there may be something wrong with your marketing. Perhaps your message is unclear or the tactics you're using are inappropriate for the audience. I find, though, that for the majority of business owners who say this, the real problem is not that their marketing isn't working but that they aren't working their marketing.

Let's say your business needs two new clients a month, on average. If, in your experience, you must make a detailed presentation, proposal, or initial consultation to three potential clients for one to say yes, you will need to make six of these presentations per month.

Now how many prospects do you need to have contact with for one to be interested in a presentation? Ten, maybe? That means you need to make contact with 60 prospects each month to land your two new clients. If you do this math for yourself, you may quickly find that the only thing wrong with your marketing is that there hasn't been enough of it.

Author: C.J. Hayden

Article URL: http://www.getclientsnow.com/march2000.htm

About The Author

C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Clients NOW! Thousands of business owners and salespeople have used her simple sales and marketing system to double or triple their income. Get a free copy of "Five Secrets to Finding All the Clients You'll Ever Need" at http://www.getclientsnow.com

---

How Simple, Small Changes Can Add Real Money To Your Pocket

I want to share with you a story. This story... Read More

The X Factor

So you've invested more time than you ever believed possible... Read More

Website Promotion Strategies For Targeted Web Site Traffic

If you're looking to drive more targeted traffic to your... Read More

How to Really Get Your Customers

What Really Makes Your Postcard Mailing Successful? The biggest single... Read More

The Importance of Business Marketing

Business marketing is one of the most important parts that... Read More

Building Skills in Information Marketing will Boost Your Business

Yesterday I was sitting on a train going into London... Read More

Build Your Business Through Networking

Here's one of the most important success principles you'll ever... Read More

Niche with Passion and Reap Your Financial Rewards

One of the keys to creating a successful business is... Read More

Mortgage Marketing - Viral-Email, Referral Marketing Strategy

This is a devastatingly powerful way to extend your marketing... Read More

What The Heck Is An Eponym, And What Does It Mean For Your Brand?

Today I've decided to share with you a new word... Read More

3 Simple Selling Tactics

The following 3 simple selling tactics produce sales by responding... Read More

If You Can?t Answer This Question Your Business is Doomed!

How do you answer the seemingly easy question, "What do... Read More

11 Powerful Marketing Tips

Each of these 11 marketing tips is based on a... Read More

How to Measure the Benefit Your Product or Service Offers

Measuring the benefit of your product or service means putting... Read More

When, Why, and How to Use Mailing Lists

Mailing lists may be the cause of more heartbreaks than... Read More

Gaining Business Intelligence

A white paper on how companies should analyse customer data... Read More

Getting New Clients - When Only a Few is More Than Enough

Many of the business owners I speak with are looking... Read More

Like Brushing Your Teeth

What do the following things have in common: brushing your... Read More

Are Your Marketing Efforts Working...Or Could They Use A Little Help?

Marketing is a broad business subject that encompasses a range... Read More

Discount Promotional Items ? How to Save Money

It takes money to make money is an adage we... Read More

Marketing Success - Marketing Strategy - Brand Identity Guru

Marketing message x Credibility x Visibility = Marketing SuccessThese three... Read More

How to Make Profits With a Commission Mailing Business

There are many mailorder publications that will list... Read More

7 Simple Marketing Tips

Here are 7 simple marketing tips to help you boost... Read More

Making Networking Work

Several years ago, "networking" was the hot buzzword. Everyone was... Read More

Marketing Strategies: What Choices Do You Have?

Most business people want to see improvements in sales and... Read More

How to Get the Right Clients and Avoid the Wrong Ones

If you are like most service professionals and small business... Read More

Its Not All about the Cleavage! Or is It?

Times are a changin'! More women today work outside the... Read More

Tradeshow Booth Cures - Living Color

Feng Shui is the Ancient Chinese practice of configuring home... Read More

Getting Ideas for Your Postcards

If you're going to do postcard marketing on an ongoing... Read More

How to Expand Your Target Markets

Are your products or services geared towards only one target... Read More

What Does Your Business Address Say?

If you are operating a business from your home and... Read More

Looking for Sky In All The Wrong Places

Ever sit with a single puzzle piece of clouds and... Read More

Misrepresentation - Through Silence!

We're back to the subject of ethics, more specifically, business... Read More